Most Eligible Bachelor?
by Googie
Summary: Beckett and Castle are together now, but it's still a secret. No problem. Except for the fact that Castle has made the Ledger's List of Most Eligible Bachelors once again. Hmmm...how will this work out? A play on the B plot from episode 2x14, 'The Third Man'.
1. Chapter 1

_**"Believe it or not, there are a lot of women in this town who like the idea of being romantically linked to me."**_

_**A bit of background: It's summer here right now. Being a mom, I'm in my car a lot, toting kids here and there. The kids watch Castle DVDs from previous seasons during our rides. One of them that they watched recently (several times...) was 'The Third Man'. The line above was from that episode, where Castle was named New York's #9 most eligible bachelor. He uttered that line after he told Beckett about his date with #3 and she gave him a hard time.**_

_**Now, background on this story: In listening to this episode, this line jumped out at me and I thought that given recent circumstances, it would be fun to revisit the whole 'Most Eligible Bachelor' thing, but with a different take on it since they're 'together' now. And here's what came out of that thought. (The timing isn't exactly correct, but please overlook that aspect.)**_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Castle, but now I kinda wish I did b/c then I wouldn't have to wait until September to find out what's going on.**_

* * *

"I absolutely cannot believe this!" she said, pulling the paper down from in front of her face, and glaring at him where he stood across from her in the kitchen.

"It wasn't...I didn't have anything to do with this!" he said, shaking his head while proclaiming his innocence.

"Oh, sure. Like you didn't know about the last one either." Her tone was pure sarcasm.

"That was years ago, and yes, I _did_ know about that one. Donna interviewed me for that article. Well, I mean...I didn't know she was going to mention _you_, but I knew about the article. But I was single then! And I'm...not...anymore." He sounded uncomfortable, not wanting to say the wrong thing,

"So you're saying that she didn't interview you this time? Right." She obviously didn't believe him.

"No! Of course not!"

"Well, then how did she get all of this information? Huh? It even says something about your latest book!" She wasn't letting up in the least. He'd just woken up, and after the night they'd had...man, how did she have the energy to even make herself get up this early, let alone grill him about a newspaper article that he hadn't even—

Oh.

_Oh._

The benefit two weeks ago. "Well," he started sheepishly, "there was that benefit that I had to go to a couple of weeks ago? Remember, you didn't want to go to it with me because you thought—"

"I know what I thought, and it's what we _both_ agreed to," she challenged.

"Yeah, well...Donna...the reporter at the Ledger who wrote this? She was there, and we chatted for a while. But Kate," he said, taking a step toward her, "that was _it_." He pulled the paper out of her hands so there was nothing in between them, and he stepped closer to her. "It was just idle chit-chat because I hadn't seen her in a while, and I was just trying to pass the time until I could make a graceful exit. Come on...I was at your place by 9:30 that night." He tried to pull her a little bit closer but she was having none of it.

She glared at him. "You're number four this year!" She hurled the comment like it was the epitome of insults. "How did you manage to pull that off, when you were a lowly number nine before?"

"I didn't 'pull anything off', as you say, unless you're counting your clothes last night," he told her, trying for some humor. But from the look on her face after he said the words, that was not the thing to say right then. "Okay, sorry," he said, holding his hands up in a surrender motion. Even though a small part of his ego was stroked at moving up five spots in the rankings, that didn't compare to the need he felt to smooth things over with Kate.

"Come on, Kate. It's a really cruel form of irony that I was number nine when I'm not involved with you—"

"But the article implied that you _were_ involved with me then!"

"Exactly my point! That's all it is...irony. It's the universe trying to mess with us. And now that we are involved, I not only move up on the list but there's no mention of you at all? Come on..."

"Yes, fine. It's ironic. But the point is that you're still on the list."

"What's going on? What list?" Alexis walked into the kitchen, somewhat bleary-eyed, and plopped down on one of the chairs at the counter.

The two adults looked at each other, startled by the arrival of the girl in the kitchen. Kate was just glaring at him and was making no move to say anything, so he told his daughter. "I'm in the Ledger again."

"Why? You haven't stolen any..." And then she got a good look at the two adults, and something about the looks on their faces, along with her hearing the word 'list', jogged something in her memory. "Oh, no Dad. Tell me you didn't make _that_ list again." She looked to Kate, and she had her answer. "What number this time?"

"Four. And he _says_ he didn't have anything to do with it." Kate's tone sounded anything but convinced.

"I didn't!" Rick protested again.

"Yeah, well," Alexis said, giving him her version of the glare that could wilt flowers. "I'm sure that's not going to matter to most of them. So, dad, do you want me to give Fraulein Sonnenberg a call? Or maybe my friend Sloane? She's legal now, you know."

"Alexis, what do you mean?" Kate asked the girl.

"The women who will undoubtably start trying to get to him now. Last time, it was my vice principal, my German teacher, and even one of my friends. And that was just at school. And then there was—"

"Whoa, whoa!" He turned to his daughter and pointed a finger at her in what he hoped was an authoritative, fatherly gesture. "Alexis, you may be over eighteen now, but I still know how to use itching powder when you least expect it." He turned to his secret girlfriend, at least as far as the rest of the world was concerned. "And Kate...you know we agreed to keep our relationship under wraps for a few months. I talked to Donna at the benefit, yes, but I didn't think I said anything about...oh, never mind. It doesn't matter what's printed in the paper."

"Right. It's in the _newspaper_, Castle, on the front page."

"But it doesn't matter."

"Did you even _read_ it?"

"Well, I...not really...you had the paper first, and then we started talking about it..."

She reached for the paper again, and after clearing her throat, began reading, "_The Ledger's number four choice is bestselling author Richard Castle, whose new book 'Frozen Heat' hits the stands later this month and promises to be another bestseller for him. He's been absent from our last couple of 'Most Eligible Bachelor' lists, but rumor has it that the dashing author and NYPD 12th Precinct shadow is again quite single and eligible, as evidenced by his solo attendance at the Art Institute Benefit earlier this month, where he confessed that he didn't have a date for the evening and had all the markings of a man looking to be a little bit less lonely."_

They were all silent after Kate finished, with Alexis first gaping at her father and then just shaking her head. "God, Dad, what did you tell her?"

"I...nothing!" he protested yet again.

"It sounds like you were...on the prowl or something!" Kate said disgustedly

"I couldn't very well tell her that we were involved, now could I? You would have shot me! Or at least twisted my ear off. What was I supposed to say?"

"Well, something obviously different than what you did say! You make your living with words, after all."

He tried again to move closer to her, hoping that with Alexis in the room—even though his daughter was more on Kate's side than his—Kate wouldn't make a show of backing away. "Kate," he said as he stepped up closer to her and put his arm around her back, and was relieved when she didn't back away or even stiffen up at his touch. "I'm a bachelor, yes, but I'm not eligible to anyone but you." He gave her a chaste kiss on her cheek. "Really. It'll blow over. It won't be a big deal." And then, in a lower voice, he told her, "And I love _you_. Believe _that_, not what the damn paper says. It _will_ blow over."

"Do you really believe that, or is it just wishful thinking?" she asked him skeptically, but with a bit more warmth in her eyes than before.

"I do believe that. I haven't even really done very many public things lately at all. I've been so far out of the limelight lately that most people will need a flashlight just to know who I am. Just watch...it won't be a big deal at all."

Kate looked over at Alexis, who obviously had more experience with this than she did. The girl just shrugged at her. Looking back at Rick, she said, "Okay. But I don't want to hear any more about this damn list. Now can we get to work, please?"

He gave her a full-watt smile and this time, a kiss on the lips. "Definitely. It'll be fine...don't worry. It's not a big deal."

But when they got to the precinct, they found out that Castle had never been more wrong in his life.

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_**Hope you enjoyed it! If there's enough interest, I'll continue it. **_

_**Thoughts?**_

_**And remember, I'm xxGoogiexx on twitter and tumbler, if you want another avenue to be notified about story updates.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Wow...I never, never, ever expected the response I got for chapter 1 of this story! Right after I posted it, I checked my email once, just for the heck of it about 20 minutes after I'd last checked it, and my inbox had totally exploded with alerts! I was and still am amazed. So THANK YOU! I hope this next chapter lives up to your expectations. And remember, this is supposed to be fluffy and kind of fun, so reality is suspended for a bit.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Castle. (Part of me is anxiously awaiting Season 5, but the other part of me knows that summer will be over then, and I'm not anxiously awaiting that. I like summer.)**_

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The drive to the precinct was pleasant enough, although there was a general underlying weirdness because they were both still thinking about the 'Most Eligible Bachelor' thing. Neither one of them said a word about it, but he was still thinking about it, because of the surprise, and—he felt like fist pumping the air _and_ feeding the birds—because he was _Number 4_ this year! But of course, he couldn't do that with Kate there to witness it, so he just resorted to looking out the window a lot while trying to hide a self-satisfied grin.

She was still thinking about it, because, well, it had certainly been annoying enough when he was on it the first time. But now they were dating, albeit secretly, and she never thought that she'd have to worry about something like this. But part of being in a relationship was having some trust in the other person. So even though she thought he was living in denial if he thought that being named number four on the Ledger's list of the top ten most eligible bachelors was 'no big deal', she was trying very hard to trust him and not make a big deal out of it herself.

But then they got to the precinct.

Or, more specifically, she got to the precinct. As per their agreement when one of them stayed over at the other's place (which was most nights), she would drop him off a few blocks from the station and he'd either walk or catch a cab. The cabbies tended to give him some strange looks when he asked to go only a couple of blocks, but hey, he didn't care. He was still basking in the glow of them finally being in a _real_ relationship, so what did a few strange looks from a cranky cabbie matter anyway? He always tipped well.

Usually, he would saunter in anywhere from fifteen minutes to forty-five minutes after she did, still always with their customary cups of coffee from the coffee place next to the precinct and cheerful greetings for all he passed. In the weeks since she'd been back to work, they'd gotten into a routine of sorts, and they were used to it by now. So when she'd been at her desk for almost an hour and a half and he hadn't shown up yet, she started to get preoccupied from wondering where he was.

And then, in the middle of her preoccupation, Captain Gates appeared at her desk. She didn't say anything, but simply stood there until Beckett looked up at her. "Detective Beckett," the Captain began in her no-nonsense, 'don't-mess-with-me' tone, "Could you tell me where Mr. Castle might happen to be this morning? You've been here for a while, and he usually shows up about thirty minutes after you, give or take, but I don't see him around. Although this is a quite pleasant turn of events in my opinion, it's still unusual."

The captain had noticed their arrival times relative to each other? She was going to have to talk to Castle about becoming a little less predictable. And here they thought they were doing so well. But she needed to respond, so she tried to look nonchalant. "I'm not really sure, Captain. He doesn't really let me know about his schedule, but I can definitely let him know you were looking for him. Is there anything I can help you with?" She tried to sound helpful, and the schedule comment was at least somewhat true.

"No, thank you, Detective. But do let Mr. Castle know that he should come and see me when he arrives." And after a pointed look, she was walking toward her office.

The captain wanted to talk to Castle? Why?

About five minutes had passed when she saw Castle strolling in, carrying... a bouquet of flowers? What the hell was he doing bringing her a bouquet of flowers in the precinct? Coffee was one thing, but flowers implied more...intimacy. And there was _just_ the bouquet of flowers; there was no coffee. After this morning, she needed more coffee. Where was the damn coffee?

"Detectives," he said, addressing all of them when he got to the bullpen. "How are you all this fine morning?" He tried to sound jovial, but something just sounded a bit off to Kate.

"Aw, Castle, did you bring me flowers?" Ryan joked.

Did he look a little uncomfortable, Kate wondered, or was that just her projecting her thoughts onto him?

"Uh, no..."

"For Beckett, then?"

"No!" The word came out a little too clipped, too fast. He must have realized that, and he stuttered, "No, uh, they were, uh, given to me on my way here. Uh, I can put them in the break room."

"Someone gave you flowers?" Esposito asked.

Before Castle could answer, Ryan stood up and peered at him a little more closely. "Castle, is that _lipstick_ on your cheek?"

Lipstick? Beckett stood up too. She hadn't kissed him on the cheek this morning; they had their customary goodbye kiss, on the lips, of course, when she'd dropped him off and then she'd applied her lipstick afterwards, as usual. She looked at his cheek too, and then she saw that yes, he definitely did look uncomfortable. Flowers? Lipstick on the cheek? She crossed her arms in front of her and raised her eyebrow at him. "So where _did_ the flowers come from, Castle? Who gave them to you?" she asked in her best interrogation voice. She chose to ask about the flowers; she didn't even want to touch on the lipstick verbally, even though she was sure he knew she was asking about it non-verbally.

But before he could answer, Ryan snapped his fingers. "Ah, I've got it." He bent down and grabbed his copy of the Ledger from under a stack of file folders. "This wouldn't have anything to do with you moving up to the number four most eligible bachelor spot, now would it?" Esposito obviously knew about it too, because he cocked his head at him knowingly, waiting for his answer. "Congrats, dude! Number _four_ this time! You're really moving up!" Then Ryan moved in for a congratulatory 'feed the birds' gesture, which Castle unconsciously responded to, still having that internal pride of being number four. But then he glanced over at Beckett, where he could see the fire starting to burn in her eyes.

Castle gave a nervous laugh, his eyes darting back and forth between Beckett and the guys. "Oh, yeah, that..." he said slowly, giving a nervous little laugh. "What makes you think that? Can't a guy get some flowers without people talking about him? It's no big deal."

Hearing his words from earlier, 'no big deal' now didn't do anything for Kate's attitude, especially after seeing the flowers and the lipstick on his cheek.

"Castle..." she said in a threatening tone. "What happened?"

"Yeah, and why are you holding flowers but no coffee? Man, I can't remember the last time you came in here without coffee for you and Beckett," Esposito had to point out.

Of course, Beckett was wondering that too, along with the flowers and the lipstick on his cheek.

He was looking from one of them to the other. "I was going to get coffee...and then...at the coffee shop...you know, they have newspapers. And people read them. And women are there. Single women. Women who read newspapers. Women who aren't shy."

"Got a little attention at the coffee place, huh?" Ryan smirked.

"A _little_? I...they were..._I couldn't even get our coffee!" _he sputtered.

"Got a little caught up in the adoration from your adoring fans, Castle?" Beckett said icily. "Guess it's a pretty _big deal_ to them to see the Most Eligible Bachelor Number Four up close and _personal_ like that," she told him, throwing his words back at him.

"With the..." Esposito said, tapping at his own cheek to remind Castle of the lipstick still there, "it looks like it got nice and personal."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "I'm going to the breakroom. Looks like I'll need a cup of _coffee_." And she started stalking away, but then turned around when she remembered Captain Gates' request. "Oh, Castle, after you get the lipstick wiped off your cheek, the Captain wanted to see you."

Castle looked at the flowers in his hand, and then shoved them at Esposito as he started following Kate. "Beckett—"

"Mr. Castle!" Both Beckett and Castle stopped and turned around, as the eyes of the writer and the three detectives settled on the stoic—and somewhat annoyed-looking—Captain Gates walking toward them.

"Uh, yes, Captain," Castle responded. Noting the look on her face, he told her, "Is that a new suit you're wearing? Because, I must say, the color—"

"Cut the crap, Mr. Castle." She gave him a withering glare before she started speaking again. "You know, I allow you to stay around here because although I, personally, think you have very little useful purpose, my detectives seem to think you bring some value to the department. You're walking a fine line, Mr. Castle. It's bad enough that you used your questionable notoriety to insinuate yourself into the inner workings of this department, but bringing that notoriety into my precinct and using up valuable manpower is crossing over that fine line, Mr. Castle."

Castle, as well as the three detectives, continued to look at the Captain, hoping that something that she said would soon make sense. Castle got the feeling he was supposed to apologize—or drop dead, based on the glare she was giving him—but he really had no idea how to even start apologizing, and barring a massive coronary right then and there, he hopefully wasn't going to drop dead anytime soon either.

"Uh, okay, if you could tell me exactly what—"

"It is in the best interests of the City of New York," the Captain continued, "that its police officers are freed up for the purposes of fighting crime and keeping order in the streets of New York. More than that, it's imperative that this happens. So when I find out that starting as early as six thirty a.m., my officers have been fielding personal calls for you, Mr. Castle, it does _not_ make me happy. In fact, it makes me quite unhappy."

Uh oh. This didn't sound good. And the look on her face was even scarier than normal, Castle thought. He swallowed. "Calls, Captain?"

"Yes, Mr. Castle, calls." She waved her hand in front of him, and for the first time, they all noticed the stack of message slips that Captain Gates was holding. "It seems that with the lovely article in todays Ledger and the convenient mention of the twelfth, your apparently vast numbers female admirers have taken to clogging up our phone lines trying to reach you. I assume you have an unlisted personal number, Mr. Castle?"

He just gave a minute nod, thinking that any more movement might trigger an explosion inside the Captain, kind of like if she had nitroglycerin inside of her. Avoid the volatility.

She scrolled through the message slips. "Well, the twelfth does _not_. And apparently Magda, Amber, Cheyenne, Josie, and oh...here's a good one: Trixie! Apparently all of these women are early risers and felt the need to tie up the phone lines and resources of the twelfth precinct by leaving messages for you." She gave him a pointed glare.

"I...I'm sorry? Uh, Captain, I had no idea that the Ledger was going to—"

"Save it, Mr. Castle. And make this right. You may enjoy your little playboy image, but there's no place for that in my precinct." She turned to leave, but then stopped. "And Mr. Castle? Get the lipstick off your face. It's not your shade. And if you can't groom yourself properly after your...private activities, then please do us all a favor and just stay away." Having finished her dressing-down, she marched back into her office and shut the door.

Nobody moved for at least ten seconds. Nobody knew what to say.

Finally Esposito broke the silence. "Damn, Castle, you got hotties calling you here too? Kisses and flowers at the coffee shop—"

"No," he said offhandedly. "The flowers were from some girl on the steps of the precinct. The kisses...were..." His voice faltered and trailed off as he caught Kate's narrowed eyes and a gaze that could have frozen ice on the equator. "Beckett..."

But his words fell on her retreating back as she turned without a word and began to walk purposefully toward the breakroom.

"I thought being the fourth most eligible bachelor was supposed to be more fun than this," he muttered to himself as he ignored the other two detectives and hurried after a retreating Kate.

But damn, he thought, why did this have to be such a big deal?

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_**Hope you enjoyed it.**_

_**So give me your opinions on my portrayal of Gates. Too snarky? Not snarky enough? **_

_**For those of you following this, let me know if you want more shenanigans or a resolution. I have ideas for either way.**_

_**Thanks for reading!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**I'm having a lot of fun with this story! I want to sincerely thank everyone who has left me a review for this story or is following it. And if you not only story alerted it but also left me a comment, triple thanks for you! You're the best!**_

_**Disclaimer: I own none of Castle.**_

* * *

He walked toward the break room after her, almost feeling like he was taking his life in his hands. Like he was stepping into a warzone. Well, the Supreme Empress of the Twelfth had already issued an order of execution by death glare, with a backup plan of razor-sharp words being hurled at him. So stepping into the breakroom with his girlfriend—even if she was still his secret girlfriend—should feel like a welcome relief.

It didn't.

It felt like he was just walking into round two.

But, nevertheless, he did it, after making sure in the reflection of the windows in the interrogation room that all of the lipstick was off his cheek. No, having some other woman's lipstick adorning his cheek wasn't the way to start out the conversation with Kate.

Hey, maybe things would be okay, he thought. Maybe she'd take pity on him for being verbally lambasted by Gates like that. Maybe she'd think it was all funny. Yeah, she might appreciate the irony now. Hell, with him going to get coffee to prove to Kate that things were nice and normal, and then having those women steal it out of his hands so he didn't even have the stupid coffee for proof ... it was almost more irony. Maybe when he explained everything to her, she'd realize that he was still the same guy that loved her, and only her. Or maybe she would just ignore the whole, stupid mess.

Then he saw the look on her face as he walked into the room. Uh oh. Maybe not.

With one hand holding a cup of coffee, and the index finger from her other hand pointed at him menacingly, she said, "And don't you dare try to tell me that _'it's no big deal'_." She threw his previous words back to him in a pouty, exaggeratedly deep voice meant to mimic him.

"I ... I'm sorry I didn't get your coffee. I tried, and I ordered it and everything! And these women—"

"Castle, I really don't want to hear about all of your women." She turned around toward the counter. She didn't really have anything to do, but she didn't want to keep looking at him.

"They're not all of my women!" he protested, louder than he'd intended, causing her to whip back around toward him. They both looked around, a bit embarrassed at the volume of his words. Then he continued in a softer voice. "Look, I went into the coffee shop. There were a couple of women there, I guess. I didn't really notice, because after ... " he looked around a bit, to make sure nobody was around, before continuing in an even softer voice, " ... after that goodbye kiss you gave me in the car, I kept remembering last night, and ... " he shrugged and smiled what he hoped was a disarming smile. "Let's just say my attention was definitely _not_ on the women in the coffee shop."

Okay, she thought, he was scoring some points by admitting that he was thinking of her and their night together, even after having his ego stroked by the Ledger list. But there was no way she was going to let him know that.

"So I suppose that you were so enthralled by the memories in your overactive imagination that you just—what? Got the coffee and left it there? Or were you in a fugue state and you just walked out of there like a zombie, happening to forget the coffee?"

"No! And why are you worried about the coffee anyway? I'll buy you your own damn coffee shop if you want!"

"I'm not worried about the coffee, Castle." Now it was her turn to look around, and she lowered her voice to little more than a whisper in case anyone was within earshot. "I'm annoyed. I'm annoyed because I'm caffeine deprived and the last thing you said to me before you got out of the car was that you'd see me in a little bit, just as soon as you got my coffee. And the next thing I know, I'm waiting around, getting a headache, Gates knows you always arrive right after me each morning, and then when you finally do turn up, you have NO coffee but you DO have lipstick on your cheek. Lipstick from a _kiss_. Lipstick that _I_ did not leave there."

"No. That's not right," he said, shaking his head.

"What? You're telling me that _I_ kissed you on the cheek when I know damn well that I didn't?" she hissed.

"No. The last thing that I said to you before I got out of the car had nothing to do with coffee." He took a small step closer to her. "Right before I got out of the car, I said 'I love you'."

She froze. And damn that man, he was going to make her get all sappy. She already felt that that little catch of her breath, that little punch in her belly, like she still felt whenever he said it. It was true, she knew that; that _was _the last thing he'd said to her in the car. But blast it—she just wanted to be mad. At least a little bit, just for the principle that she shouldn't have to put up with having strange women fawning all over _her_ man. Even though nobody but them and their immediate families knew he was _her_ man. But it was really hard to be mad at him when he reminded her of his words, and especially with the way he was looking at her now. Not able to keep looking at him after his soft words, she looked down at the cup of coffee she still held in her hand.

"And I do, you know." He didn't say anything else, and she knew he was waiting for her to look back up at him. When she finally did, he continued, "I won't lie to you and say that it isn't just a little bit cool to be on the list, and to have moved up. But it doesn't really mean anything important to me, okay? _You're_ important. _We_ are important. The list...hell, Kate, I didn't even know about it until you pointed it out in the paper." He sighed. "You know, I really want to hold your hands or put my arms around you right now, but that would violate the no-touch policy in the station. And with my apparently horrible luck so far today, Gates would probably walk in right then."

She knew he was being truthful; she knew him well enough by now. And she believed him, however annoying this whole mess was.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'm surprised that the guys haven't walked in by now." She offered him a ghost of a smile. "Want some coffee?"

"Don't mind if I do." It sounded like they'd formed a truce of sorts, so they both moved over to the coffee maker, and she handed him a cup while started pushing the buttons. "You know," he said, testing the waters, looking at her sideways, "you're not the only one who didn't get coffee this morning. Those vulture women stole my coffee too!"

She turned to look at him now, a skeptical look on her face. "What do you mean, they stole your coffee?"

"They stole it! I ordered our coffee, and ... listen, do you really want to hear about this?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "I'm probably going to hear about it sometime anyway, so it might as well be now. So some woman took your coffee? What? She liked your order better?"

"No. It was the strangest thing. A few people gave me looks when I walked in, but nothing outrageous. But then as I was waiting for the barista to make the coffees, all of these women started coming into the shop. I vaguely remember hearing someone shout 'there he is!' but like I said before, I wasn't really paying attention. But then just about when the coffees were done, I felt a woman tap me on the shoulder. She had a paper. I turned around, and she just looked at me and said 'it _is_ you!' and hugged me! And she took a picture of us with her phone. Then she ran off. Then I noticed that there's this _wall_ of _ women_ in back of her, and they all have papers! So I grabbed the coffees, thinking I'm just going to get out of there, and then one of the women just darts up and takes one of the cups and runs off with this giddy little scream. Now that I think about it," he said as he looked off into space for a moment, "it sounded just this side of deranged." He snapped himself back to the present. "Then another one looks at the first one, and does the same with the other cup. So there went our coffee."

"Two strange women just came up and snatched our coffees?" Now the skeptical look had transferred to a skeptical-sounding voice.

"Yes! And then another one was standing there and glared at the first two, and _she's_ the one who gave me the kiss. Complete with another picture. After that, I just tried to get the hell out of there because it was just getting too weird."

"Then why did it take you an hour and a half to get here?"

"The women weren't confined to the coffee shop. They kept trying to follow me, talk to me. Asked me weird questions. It was a really slow walk back here," he finished, shaking his head.

Just then, before she could ask him about the 'weird questions', a knock sounded on the breakroom door. "Hey, guys?" Ryan asked. "Everything okay?"

They both turned toward Ryan, mentally checking to make sure they weren't touching or standing too close. Just to be on the safe side, Kate took a step back and asked, "Sure. Everything's great."

"Well, that's good, because we're out of here. We caught a body. Hey, Castle, you with us or are you gonna work the switchboard fielding calls from all of your admirers? Maybe you'd get a call from some Bambi this time," he said with a smirk.

"Ha ha, Ryan. No, I'm with you. And hopefully those women from this morning will be the worst of it." He shook his head and huffed out an exasperated breath. "They can't get any worse than that."

And once again, as soon as they left the precinct, they found out how utterly wrong Castle could be.

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_**Since most of you voted for more shenanigans, then shenanigans you shall receive. And oh, do I have shenanigans in store for you!**_

_**So...review? I'd love it if you did. Makes me want to write faster...really.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**I love where this story is going. And I love that people seem to really like it and want me to write more. Sorry about the delay...there are all of these summer sports, and put that together with vacation and campsites with no wi-fi; well, not a lot of time to write, or to be able to publish something once I do get it written.**_

_**That said, thank you so much to the handful of people who so often seem to regularly leave me comments, and to all of the anonomous, 'guest users' who take the time to leave me comments too. You keep me going. For the other 200+ people that are logged in and are following this story...where are you hiding?**_

_**Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Don't make a cent off of this. If I did, would I still be camping?**_

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They left the precinct, finishing their coffee and trying to dodge Captain Gates. Their destination was Central Park. Luckily, Beckett's car was parked in the police parking garage, so at least they didn't have to worry about random women converging on him, like at the coffee shop. Nevertheless, they still did cautiously step out of the elevator and look around when it opened on the correct level, and then they breathed twin signs of relief when they saw nothing more odd than a nasty wad of gum on the pavement. And even though neither of them spoke a word, their answering smiles spoke volumes and lightened the mood between them. They were good; at least they were better than they'd been when Castle had walked in with no coffee and lipstick on his cheek.

But still, Castle was a little bit cautious, and he didn't want to assume too much with Kate, since he'd been so spectactularly wrong already that morning. So on the drive there, Castle asked her about her dinner plans. She gave him a look and then rolled her eyes, just because he was being so formal about it. He knew as well as she did that by now, it was assumed that they'd spend evenings together, unless she had plans with Lanie or had to work late, or he had meetings or some other event with his publisher. She knew he was just being safe and was testing the waters. In response to her look, he shrugged and tried to act innocent. "Hey, you _could_ have plans. I just wanted to be polite and check."

She shook her head as she drove. "Castle, you _know_ I was planning to spend the evening with you. We just talked about it last night, when you gave me the sad, mopey eyes because Alexis would be back at her dorm today. You said you'd be so _lonely_, remember?" She emphasized the word, reminding him of his dramatic sighs the night before as they cuddled on the couch together.

Busted. "Well...you might...have changed your mind. Recently. This morning, maybe," he told her haltingly, trying to gauge her mood.

She gave him a sideways look as she drove. "No, I haven't changed my mind. But if you try to feed me anything strange, like that chocolate chicken chimichanga you tried last week, I just might remember some paperwork I'll have to get done. Paperwork that may take days, if not weeks," she told him with a raised eyebrow.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad." He felt the need to defend his culinary creation with the alliterative name.

"Don't flatter yourself, Castle. I'm just really grateful that Alexis took pity on me and warned me about your penchant for taking perfectly normal food items and combining them into something truly disgusting."

He huffed out a sigh. "Fine then. Lasagna?"

"As long as you don't hide strange and disgusting things between the noodles, then that sounds good."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

At the park, they found that Ryan and Esposito beat them to the scene and were already talking to the CSU tech. Beckett and Castle listened while Ryan gave his rundown of the crime and what the CSU techs had discovered on their preliminary walk-through. During Ryan's talk, Beckett noticed something about Esposito, and despite the fact that he was interjecting bits of information here and there, she noticed Esposito's eyes darting around as he looked at them, or rather, past and around them. He seemed distracted, and that was so uncharacteristic of Esposito that Beckett felt the need to ask him about it.

"Something wrong, Esposito? Problem concentrating on our crime scene?"

"Well, no, not exactly. I'm just wondering what they," he bobbed his head sideways, "are up to. Over there."

Beckett took her eyes off their victim and looked down the hill in the park, in the direction Esposito had indicated. And she noticed a group of women—standing _behind_ the crime scene tape, thankfully—who were staring at them with some sort of strange fascination, like one would imagine a group of eager medical students might be watching the first time their professor cut open a cadaver. And then she realized that there were currently three more women running—_running?_—to join their group, with all three of them materializing in just the few seconds since she'd looked over at them. And not only that, a lot of them had their phones held out in front of them, presumably trying to take pictures!

Who did they think they were, trying to take pictures of a crime scene, and the victim?

As she took a step over toward them, she noticed several of the women with big grins on their faces, and they were now doing little excited hops up and down and were waving at her. Beckett continued down the hill toward them, and as she got closer, she realized something very important.

They weren't staring at her after all. And they weren't taking pictures of the victim.

They were staring _behind_ her. And they were still waving, hopping and grinning. And she would bet her next ten cups of coffee that if she turned around, she'd find that Castle was following her and was the recipient of those stares.

She'd just turned around to tell him—and yes, dammit, he _was_ smiling at them!—to go back to the crime scene while she spoke with the women, but before she could say anything, she heard one of the women say, "It _is_ him! It's bachelor number four!' and then she heard another one shreik, "Oh, my God! He _smiled_ at me! And I got a picture of it!" followed by the sounds of several camera phones presumably recording their own images of 'his' smile.

She stepped up to the line and started saying in her most authoritative voice, "Ladies, this is an active crime—"

"Hey, Rick," interjected a tall, twenty-something brunette with long, wavy hair, totally ignoring Beckett. Beckett's gaze found the woman who belonged to the voice that just interrupted her. And then she noticed that Castle was now right next to her, directly in front of the wavy-haired, ill-mannered brunette. "I saw that you were...eligible, and you know, I'm eligible too. _Really_ eligible. Enthusiastically eligible, even," she said suggestively. "So, you know," she said as she gestured to her uber-tight, fashionably-torn jeans while she gave him a suggestive smile under a raised eyebrow, "Ripped jeans, skin was showin', so...call me, maybe?" And with that, she threw a little air-kiss toward him as she grabbed his hand and wrapped his fingers around the slip of paper she'd just pressed into his palm. And then she turned around and sauntered away, swaying those ripped jeans for all to see and garnering a shocked look from Castle and a few death glares from the other women.

However, one of the other women wasn't wasting any time worrying about the other brunette; she leaned forward, put her arm around Castle and, while holding her phone out in front of them, snapped a picture of the two of them.

Beckett watched the whole thing, getting more and more annoyed by the second. They had a murder victim, and Castle was apparently being stalked at their crime scene like he was Justin Bieber in an auditorium of teenage girls. And while he may have been smiling before, he was obviously not having a fun time now. The smile had dropped off of his face in favor of a highly uncomfortable, get-me-out-of-here look. And in a split second, Beckett decided enough was enough. She stepped in front of Castle and started her speech again, "Ladies, this is—"

But that time, she didn't even get as far as she had the previous time before a woman lunged forward at Castle, almost pushing her out of the way, and grabbed the decorative pocket accent piece that was in his suitcoat. Castle jumped back as soon as she lunged, but the blonde was too quick for him and snatched it away before he could fully react. She held it up and proclaimed proudly, "I got a piece of his clothing!" before she turned and scurried away.

They were still staring at the woman running away with the slip of fabric from Castle's pocket, wondering what the hell had just happened, when a woman off to the side shouted at him, "Hey, Rick, what was your favorite food when you were ten? Did you like mac and cheeeeese?" She drew out the vowel sound, which added a decidedly creepy vibe to the already strange question. Castle, normally so quick with a comeback, just stared at her.

With the throng of women ignoring her and all but propositioning _her_ man (even though nobody really knew he was her man) right in front of her, not to mention interrupting her job, Beckett was about to lose her cool and show these women how well cops, even female ones, were trained in hand-to-hand combat, as well as what a crime scene and police tape meant. She squared her shoulders as she stood up just a little taller and took a step toward the mob.

But then Beckett noticed Esposito, a split second before she heard him order the women to disperse and leave the area immediately, all said in his ultra-stern voice that brooked no possibility for argument. Much to Beckett's chagrin, they didn't seem to even want to acknowledge _her _presence in their apparently single-minded pursuit of all things Castle. But at least they finally took notice of the handsome male detective, especially when he used his very stern look and military seriousness and intimidation on them. But somehow, he got the job done, and all of the women started to finally disperse.

When the women were finally out of earshot, both detectives turned to Castle and glared at him, crossing their arms. "Man, what _was_ that just now, Castle?" Esposito asked him.

"I ... I don't ... know. My pocket ..." he stammered, as his hand came up to cover the small pocket that was now missing its accent piece. "Are they insane? I ..." He shook his head, as if he was still trying to process the strange happenings. "But ... see? It was like that this morning, too! The lipstick ... and our coffee! See, that one woman ... my pocket ... they _steal_ things, Beckett!" he all but whined to Kate.

She wanted to talk to him more about what had just happened, but Esposito was standing right there, and she didn't want to get into it with an audience. "Well, whatever it was, let's just say that your popularity doesn't appear to be dying down as the day goes on." She gave a disgusted eyeroll. "But we have a body, and that body was caused by a murderer that we need to find." She looked around, partially to survey the scene and partially to make sure there weren't any other Castle-stalkers lurking around. "Esposito, there's a food cart over there. Can you go see if the vendor might have seen or heard anything since he set up this morning?"

He nodded and started to walk away, but then he called over his shoulder, "Sure thing. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any more of Castle's women, too."

"They're _not_ my women!" he protested to Esposito's retreating back.

"Got that right," Beckett continued softly as she started walking back up the hill toward their victim. "I think the term 'girl' would be a better descriptor for Miss 'Call-me-maybe'."

"Kate ..." he started, "I didn't have anything to do with this. You saw them yourself! I mean, sometimes we get gawkers at the crime scenes, and I thought ... and then ..."

Suddenly, she stopped and turned to him. "Look, Castle. Can we just drop this? We have a crime scene to finish processing and then we have to get to work on solving this guy's murder. Okay? We'll talk about your admiration society later."

"But—"

"Later, Castle. Now, victim."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Castle, I was around when this happened before," Kate told him as they walked out of the park toward her car. "When you were number nine, remember? There was that one wooman who said something about it when we were questioning her, how you were a catch, and that was how I found out about the whole thing. But now ... I mean, this is nothing like it was then. You didn't have women stalking you, grabbing you for pictures ..." And then she had a thought, and turned to him as she slowed her pace. "Did you?"

He looked at her, saw the serious look on her face. "What? Then? You mean ... like now? No! Kate, back then, I probably would have loved this ... attention. Well, some of it, anyway. But most of them ... they're creepy. What the hell does it matter what I ate when I was ten anyway?"

"That was a little weird. I'll give you that," Kate told him. "But okay. Everyone is a little more enthusiastic this time. So what's different? What's so different with this year's list that didn't get you the same kind of response before?"

He shrugged. "The economy?" At her puzzled look, he continued in a game-show-host voice like he was narrating an infomercial. "Don't have a job? No problem ... just latch onto the closest rich guy! One of New York's most eligible bachelors is waiting for _you_!" He shrugged again.

She turned and gave him a look. "The economy? Really? That's the best you can do?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Otherwise, I got nothing. But hey, maybe it's not _really_ that bad. This murder was out in public, whereas the one years ago, on the day the list came out ... that one was in a private apartment. I'm probably just more visible this time, so they're finding me," he reasoned. "I bet it'll all die down now. A few women got their look at me, a few pictures ... now they can go back to their lives. They got it out of their systems. But just to be on the safe side, I'll try to keep a low profile for the next few days."

"Probably a good idea," she agreed cautiously.

He nodded. "Good. Just watch. I'll just stay out of public places as much as possible for the next day or two, and then everything will blow over. No big deal."

Hearing that, Kate wanted to believe him. But hearing his last words, the same words that he'd spoken in the loft that morning, she got a bad feeling about this as she somehow knew that there was more to come, although she couldn't imagine what it could possibly be.

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_**Thanks for reading! **_

_**As always, please type something in that box down there and let me know what you thought of the chapter. Especially if you're following this story (or me) and get the update alerts, let me know what you like about it.**_

_**Semi-spoiler alert: I have something very interesting planned for this story. I put my imagination to good use for this one!**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**I'm glad people weren't put off by the 'Call Me Maybe' reference in the last chapter. It was kind of over-the-top, but that was actually the intention of the whole scene so I took a chance and left it in because it kind of fit. (And I don't remember who, but someone said the endings were getting repetitive. Yeah, that was intentional. Storytelling device and all that.) **_

_**For the tone of this chapter, please remember how Castle was really skittish during the mummy case, when he thought that he was cursed because he laid eyes on the mummy. Same thing.**_

_**Thanks to those who took the time to leave me a review. You're great. Really. **_

_**Disclaimer: Yeah, right.**_

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For once, it seemed that Castle's prediction of it not being a 'big deal' was actually right. They'd still had some looks and women pointing at them (or him) when they exited the park—of which they both were now very cognizant—but luckily nobody actually approached them (although a few women did start toward them but veered away when they got closer). Of course, that could have been due to Castle's prediction, Esposito's stern admonition to the female Castle-stalking posse ... or it could have to do with the fact that they were walking quickly and Kate had conveniently taken off her jacket to reveal her gun holster to anyone who could see them. And even if it wasn't totally ethical, the woman in her secretly liked having—and using—that advantage to hopefully ward off any more stalkers ... uh, admirers.

But whatever the reason, they weren't going to question their good luck on any apparent anonymity for whatever reason, especially after a morning that had been filled with nothing but some strange (and disturbing) notoriety. They got back to the precinct, and Castle was skittish that he was going to get another tongue-lashing from the Captain, but she merely regarded his arrival with a slight glare under her reading glasses before she turned her attention to Beckett and asked her about the case.

Kate was more than a little bit surprised, although pleasantly, at Castle's change in demeanor after the fangirl attack in the park at their crime scene. Despite the fact that they didn't see anyone else trying to get close to him, he was now hyper-aware of anyone around them, his gaze flitting around to make sure someone wasn't following them. Whereas when he'd initially seen the fan horde behind the tape and had actually walked up to them—smiling, no less (and she still wanted to hit him for that stupid move)—he seemed to have realized that the people following him now, after the Ledger article, weren't your normal class of fans. And that different type of attention appeared to make him a bit nervous and on edge now.

Or, she secretly hoped, maybe he realized that this time he just wasn't interested in all of the attention from the fangirls?

She really hoped it was the second one.

He seemed to relax a bit once they got inside the precinct, as if the only one he'd have to worry about within the confines of the police station was Gates. Although, there was one incident where a woman giving a statement to a uniform had pointed in his direction, making him quickly ditch out of her line of sight. Kate had been talking with him, and as after glancing down at a file, she looked up and he was gone. Just ... gone. She stopped and after looking around, found him hiding around a corner behind a vending machine.

"Castle, what are you _doing_?" she asked him when she found him.

He pointed off toward the bullpen where the uniform sat at a desk, questioning a pretty young woman. "That woman, she ... she _pointed_ at me!"

"She pointed at you?"

"Yeah!"

"And that's...it?"

"What do you mean, is that_ it_? She's probably another one of _them_! First she's pointing at me, and the next thing you know, she's trying to rip something else off of me! Or grabbing me to take pictures! You know, that wasn't even my good side either! I had to hide!"

She rolled her eyes at his dramatics. No, she didn't like him smiling and engaging the fangirls, but hiding behind a candy machine was almost as bad. "Look, Castle, just go upstairs, okay? Meet me at my desk. I'll see if I can find out if she wants you to father her children or something else."

His eyes got big. "If she does...will you tell her no?" His face was so serious in response to her attempt at a joke that she couldn't help but roll her eyes again.

"Castle!"

After a quick peek out of his hiding place to make sure the coast was clear, he scurried toward the stairs, and Beckett walked over to where the uniform was finishing up with the young woman. After she was gone, Beckett found out that the woman was just reporting some odd behavior on her street. When Beckett asked about the woman pointing at Castle, the uniform looked puzzled. Then he remembered that she'd mentioned that one of the water coolers was almost out of water, so she pointed it out so he'd know which one it was and could notify someone in maintenance to check the supply. Kate wanted to laugh at Castle's reaction when the woman hadn't been after him at all. She hadn't even noticed him, and he got all uptight about it. And she _did_ laugh when she got back to the homicide floor and told Castle about the incident and that he didn't have anything to worry about.

So, he tried to relax a bit even though it wasn't far from his mind. One time, close to lunch, Kate had gone to the ladies room and Castle was engrossed in looking at the still-sparse murder board when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. Instinctively on edge and still thinking the worst of anything unexpected, he jumped off the edge of the desk where he'd been perched and scurried back several steps, waving his arms frantically to ward off any potential clothing grabbers, before he got turned around and registered a very surprised looking Detective Velasquez, who was holding out a file to him. "Uh ... Officer Collins in Records asked me to ... uh ... bring this up to Detective Beckett. Can you ..." she trailed off, surprised into silence by the unusual look on the Writer's face, like ... like he was scared of her?

But his face relaxed and he plastered on a charming smile as he took the file and said a little too cheerily, "Sure. No problem. Uh ... flies in here. Yeah. Hate those flies. Gotta shoo them away. But ... the file. Yeah ... thanks!"

Velasquez skittered away with a strange look at Castle, and a pitying look at Beckett, who was just coming back to her desk. "What did you do to Velasquez?" she asked.

Caste sighed. "Nothing. She just tried to give me the file," he said, handing it to her, "and I went a little 'stalker-defense-mode' on her."

She regarded him with a questioning look before saying, "I don't think I want to know. Listen, do you just want to go home?" And then, in a lower voice, she said, "I can fill you in later, over normal lasagna."

"No, I'm good. I'll wait here. It's safe here. Right? It _is_ still safe here? Nobody's going to try to steal my socks or anything, are they?"

"No, Castle. Nobody wants your socks. And they'd have to take your shoes off first anyway, so it would take too long ... no fast getaway, you know? And we're in a police station. Nobody's going to steal anything here."

"Oh ... yeah. Right."

"Hey, how about lunch?" she asked, changing the subject. "Can you order something?"

Grateful for the diversion, he asked, "Sure. What are you in the mood for?"

She tried to look thoughtful. "Well, maybe you could catch the comfort food truck. I'd really like some mac and cheeeese." As she drew out the vowel sound, she caught his look of surprise and then his narrowed eyes as he realized what she was doing, imitating that last stalker lady from the crime scene fiasco. "Funny, Beckett. Funny. Just for that, I may just try to find you a chocolate chicken chimichanga."

Her smile was full-blown now. "Oh, can't take a little joke? It's just so tough being bachelor number four, isn't it?"

"It actually is! Really! You saw them ... it's like I'm a piece of meat or something! Earlier this morning ... and then at the crime scene ..."

"Come on, Castle. I know you like that stuff. You can't tell me that you aren't at least a little bit happy in a male, macho pride kind of way that you're number four this year." And she stood there, crossing her arms, just waiting for him to come clean and admit it.

Looking at her, he knew he'd never be able to pull off a denial. She knew him too well. "I ... well, I didn't even need to be on the list, you know. I don't need any help in that area. Not ... anymore." Not since he had her now; not when they were together. As usual, he glanced around to make sure nobody was near, as he always did when they discussed anything personal.

"But since you are on the list, it's kind of nice to move up five spaces to number four, _right_?" she prompted again.

He looked uncomfortable. "Do I have to answer that?"

"Yes."

He exhaled a long sigh. "Okay, fine. It might be slightly flattering—"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Slightly?"

Under that gaze, he couldn't hold his aloofness. He just couldn't lie to her. He just couldn't even tell a little fib. She got him every time. He'd never be able to surprise her with anything if he was going to fold like a cheap suit whenever she looked at him that way. He huffed out a sigh. "Okay, fine. You want the truth? I'm number _four_, Beckett! Do you know how cool that is? Number _four_!" He couldn't keep the smile off his face or the excitement out of his voice when he finally acknowledged it out loud. Despite everything that had happened that morning, he still felt that urge to fist pump and feed the birds. He didn't, of course, but he still couldn't hide the smile.

"I knew it." She shook her head as she sat down at her desk.

"Hey, don't you go giving me that look," he told her, sitting down in his chair next to her desk and leaning toward her. "You asked, and it _is_ cool. But it doesn't mean I'm going to use that coolness on anyone but you."

"Better not," Kate told him sternly, but softly.

"Promise. But the rest of it, with the fangirls ... it's all gotten a little too creepy. I don't like that part of it. But just so you know I'm serious about you being the only recipient of my new coolness, I'll give you carte blanche to steal my clothes any time you want." And he gave her that little sideways grin that used to infuriate her so much, but now she knew it was just a signal that this was 'them' ... their banter, their flirtiness, their relationship. And that 'they' were good.

He wanted to kiss her now. And she knew that he did. And yeah, she wanted to kiss him too. But they couldn't do anything about it here, so she just gave him a little smile before saying, "Later."

Castle nodded, and then schooled his expression away from the sappy one he was sure he was wearing. "So ... Delivery from Wong's Palace?"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The rest of the day passed so uneventfully for Castle that he'd almost forgotten about the strange events of the morning by the time they were supposed to leave. In fact, despite his morning skittishness, by the end of the day, he thought he must have been making everything worse than it really was. It was just his mother's genes for the dramatic coming through and enhancing his memories in his mind. Yeah, that's all it was. It really hadn't been all that bad, had it?

Waiting for Kate to shut down her computer, he went through the dinner menu in his head and he realized he needed a few things from the store. There was the little corner store near his loft, and he asked Kate to stop on their way there.

An ninety minutes later, as he stood hiding in a back alley behind a dumpster, Castle realized that his mother's genes had nothing to do with it, and nothing was overly enhanced in his mind. Those women really _were_ crazy!

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_**Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**_

_**The 'interesting idea' to which I alluded before has not been revealed yet. That will happen in the next chapter or two, depending on how things shake out. I devoted more of this chapter to his evolving reaction once he thought about the situation (and it really is a lot like the curse of the mummy, if you think about it), and also to her reaction and a little bit of underlying Caskett stuff (what we can get away with in the precinct, anyway). And poor Velasquez! But I wanted to have a little fun with her.**_

_**I'd love to hear your comments and always appreciate those who take a minute or two to leave me a note.**_

_**(By the way, I'd like to know if people actually use the links that I post on twitter or tumblr when I post a new chapter. I'll keep posting those if people use them, but if nobody does, then there's really no point. So if you use twitter or tumblr, can you send me a pm or something and let me know?)**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Hi, all. Since it's been so long, I'd advise you all to go back and re-read the first 5 chapters of this story to refamiliarize yourselves with it before you try the new chapter. This is my longest chapter of this story yet.**_

_**I've had some bad luck in the recent past with publishing stories on a weekend, so I'm trying one more time because this is finally done, I'm happy with it, and I want to see if everyone else likes it or not. So if not very many people see it, then I solemnly swear to never publish another chapter on a weekend day ever again. I'll stick with Tues-Thurs (since we all know that people watch Castle on Mondays and don't read fanfic) LOL.**_

_**For all subsequent chapters, I will issue the disclaimer that I do not own the characters. However, I do reserve the right to claim my ideas that originate from this storyline. There are some ... interesting things that are going to start to happen in subsequent chapters that are independent of the characters, and I do claim those as my own ideas, which may not be copied or used without my written permission.**_

_**And lastly, I ask that if you find this story even remotely interesting to the point where you story alert it, then please leave me some feedback either in the form of a review or a PM. I want to make this story the best that it can be, but I can't do it without feedback. That's the purpose of this site, after all, and even the Community Etiquette section encourages this: "Everyone here is an aspiring writer. Respect your fellow members and lend a helping a hand when they need it. Like many things, the path to becoming a better writer is often a two way street." There were a lot (that is, a LOT) of new story alerts for the last chapter with no feedback, so yes, I would really appreciate hearing from those people too. Just tell me what you like. It won't hurt. I won't grade you, promise. :) And you'll make me a happier, better and most likely faster writer. Promise. :)**_

* * *

As he crouched down, hiding behind a dumpster and amidst other piles of garbage, he wondered how it came to this. He was the Most Eligible Bachelor Number Four, for goodness sakes! He was supposed to be coddled, admired, envied. He was _not_ supposed to be stalked at crime scenes and almost mauled when he was just trying to buy bread!

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It wasn't really such a big thing. Kate even found a parking place almost right in front of the store. Castle just needed to run in and get some french bread, some milk and a few other things. Kate said she'd stay in the car, and he was just going to zip into the store, grab what he needed, and zip out again.

Except nobody noticed the woman who was coming out of the store as he was going in. The woman who recognized him, who did a double-take when she saw him, and who immediately got out her phone and started typing something with an excited look on her face. She stood outside the store for a minute or so, and then after a look around at the street, she went back inside.

Kate _did_ finally notice when, relatively speaking, quite a while had passed and there was still no sign of Castle coming out of the store. She'd parked on the street past the store, so she turned around on her seat to see if she could spot him. And when she turned around, she didn't see him like she'd hoped, but she did see something else that was, unfortunately, starting to look familiar: an unusual number of women appeared to be hurriedly entering the store. And she groaned as she could only guess what was going on. Again.

With the hairs on her neck standing up, she quickly exited the car and locked it behind her as she sprinted toward the entrance to the store, belatedly realizing that she probably looked like what were potentially all of the other stalker women who were entering the store to find Castle. She really realized it when she hit the door at the same time as another woman, who gave her a dirty look as she shoved past Kate through the door.

She quickly walked the length of the store, scanning the aisles for a sign of her secret boyfriend. She didn't see him, but she did see a group of five or six women milling around an area in the back. She instinctively made a decision to adopt a 'normal person' persona as she walked up to them; she got into her 'part' by quickly glancing into the glass of a display case and fluffing her hair just a bit after she grabbed her lipstick out of her pocket and applied some to her lips.

She approached the group, and knew she was on the right track when, despite not seeing Castle, she heard several snippets of conversation that confirmed her suspicions:

"He _talked_ to me!" bragged one woman

"So what? _I'm_ holding his bread," defended another.

"We_ did_ wait long enough, didn't we?" interrupted a blonde.

"All I need is a picture! I couldn't get my camera ready in time."

"Picture? Hah! I know how to get him to _kiss_ me! I bet he really knows how to use those lips!" boasted a tall redhead. "And you know what _that's_ worth!"

Beckett, wanting to somewhat irrationally stake her claim on her man, almost blew her 'cover' when she heard that comment, as she felt the urge to go acquaint the redhead with the hand-to-hand combat skills taught by the NYPD.

"Yeah, but I saw him this morning too, so I get more for that," interjected the blond once again.

"If he doesn't come out soon, I'm going to go in after him!"

"If you do, _that_ picture would be worth a lot!"

The last comment was followed by a few giggles as the women looked again toward a door at the back corner of the store. Her eyes followed them, and she noticed the sign that was on the door.

Restrooms.

Castle was in the restroom?

"Hey," Kate interrupted the group, affecting her voice with a slightly giggley, breathy sound that was so different than her normal way of speaking. "Is he really here?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah," said a brunette with a short pixie haircut. "But you have to get to the back of the group," she warned. "We were here first."

"Well, there's probably enough to go around," Kate hinted suggestively, trying to take the persona of a rabid fangirl.

"You got that right!" laughed a blonde standing off to the side. "I hope he comes out soon though. I need a picture, or _something_! Just being here isn't enough," she finished dramatically.

Just then, Kate's phone vibrated in her pocket. She glanced at the screen, and seeing that it was her secret boyfriend and the object of these women's strange but apparent mania, she judiciously stepped back to answer it, as she put the put the phone to her ear and said, "Please do _not_ tell me that you're calling me while you're taking care of bathroom business."

"No!" came the whispered hiss from the other end of the phone. "I'm outside in the alley. I had to escape. They're here too! God, they're all over!"

"I know. I came into the store when you didn't come out. I can see them. I was even warned about cutting in line to see you," she told him sarcastically, rolling her eyes to herself. "But wait, how did you get into the alley? They think you're in the restroom."

"There's another door that ... never mind. I'll tell you later. Now I just need you to pick me up."

"Pick you up?" she hissed in a whisper into the phone. "Just come back in here. There's only ..." She glanced over to the group to see how many women were waiting for him, only to find that three more had walked up in the short time she was on the phone with him. Uh oh. Crap. "Oh, forget it. Where should I pick you up?"

"The alley comes out over on the next block. I'm going to make a run for it." He whispered it like it was some sort of top-secret plan to overthrow governments or something. "Go south, and then one block over and you should see me."

"Okay. I'll be there in five."

"Oh, hey, Kate?"

"Yes, Castle?" in a tone that was the verbal equivalent of rolling her eyes.

"Can you pick up the french bread and the other stuff? I didn't get a chance to get everything before I was forced into hiding."

"Yes, I suppose I'll have to grab the stuff if I want to eat tonight. But you'll owe me for this, Castle."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"So, suppose you tell me why you just couldn't come back into the store and tell your throng of admirers to get lost?" Kate wanted to know once they were safely ensconsed in the privacy and security of his loft. She tried to ask him as soon as he was in the car, but he quickly slunk down in his seat, turning his head to peer out the car windows, trying to get the jump on potential stalkers. She thought if there was a vending machine around, he would have hidden behind that too, like he had earlier at the precinct.

"Are you kidding me? I was looking around in the store, minding my own business when I notice there's a woman following me." He'd started stalking around the living room, clearly agitated. "She tried look like she wasn't, but every time I turned around, she was there. I _know_ she was following me," he stressed, trying to make her believe him. "Then there was another one. A woman. Then there were two more. It was just like this morning with the coffee ... they just ... materialized."

Even though she'd seen the women going into the store, his description and his obvious befuddlement struck her as funny. Trying to contain a smile, she asked him, "Materialized, huh? Like Scotty just beamed them down from the Federation Starship USS Stalkergirl?"

He stared at her for just a moment and then pointed his finger at her. "You don't know what it was like! I went to look at vegetables, _they_ went to look at vegetables. And then in the fruits...this blonde picked up a melon and started squeezing it and giving me the eye, like she was thinking about ... you know ..." His voice lowered when he finished, "... _not_ the melon. From the way she was looking at me, it was like I was going to be her next course! My God, we were in public!"

He was relating everything in typical Castle dramatic fashion, but she did have to admit that not all of it was dramatics, because she'd seen them herself. "So you escaped to the men's room?"

"It was the only place I could think of where they couldn't follow me! I shoved my food at them and got away as fast as I could. Kate," he whined, "they were really creeping me out. Especially the melon girl."

She shook her head. "So how did you end up out in the back alley?"

"There was another hallway that had a swinging door that separated it from the rest of the store. The restrooms were beyond that, along with an employee breakroom and the door to the alley. I sneaked out behind another guy when he left the men's room. He went into the store, I went out the back door. I hid behind a dumpster just in case some of them decided to come and search for me. I wouldn't put it past them, you know. Especially melon-girl."

"Lucky your throng of admirers didn't follow you through the swinging door in the first place, huh?"

His eyes got wide as he imagined it, and then he gave an all-body shudder.

She walked closer to him, and then thought better of it. "You know, I'd give you a hug to console you, but I have to tell you, Castle, you really reek. Did you go dumpster diving when you were in that alley?"

"No. I didn't. It was nasty back there. Ugh." He headed toward his bedroom. "I'm going to take a quick shower. And I expect you to console me properly when I'm clean." When he got to the doorway, he turned around and said, "Just so you know, this 'Most Eligible Bachelor' thing is _not_ fun. Now I can't even hug my girlfriend in the privacy of my own home because I _smell._ That is just _so_ not fair."

He disappeared into the bedroom, and she sank down on the couch, pulling out her phone. Something had been niggling at her ever since she'd seen the women at the store, but she was still debating if she should say anything to Castle about it, especially with his skittish and suspicious behavior today.

Luckily, Alexis answered right away. She identified herself, told the girl that her dad was fine (for the most part) and then launched into the reason for her call. "Alexis, when your dad was on the Ledger list the last time, how strange did things get? You said something this morning about women trying to get to him. But how far did that go? Were there a lot of women?"

"Umm ... he had that date, I remember. Mostly what I saw was from school people ... my German teacher, my vice principal. It wasn't a lot of women, I guess. It just seemed like it because it was _school_ and it was in front of my friends. And it was kind of embarrassing to think of my vice principal on a date with my dad. Ugh." She paused for a moment. "So why are you wondering about before? Are random women stalking dad or something?" she laughed, sounding as if she wasn't asking seriously at all, but was making a joke.

"Well, uh," Kate said, "actually, there have been a few stalkerish incidents today."

There was a pause before Alexis said in a disbelieving voice, "You're kidding."

"I wish I was."

"What? I was joking! You mean ... women ... really?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I've seen it myself."

"Really?" she said again. "That's kind of creepy."

"Tell me about it."

"No, tell _me_ about it. And how is Dad taking it? Please tell me he's not being a jerk about it."

Kate began to relate the incidents to Alexis, starting with the apparent calls to the 12th by Bambi and Thumper and whatever other cutesy names there were, and then what she'd been told about Castle's coffee encounter that morning. She went through the day, even describing how Castle was hiding behind the vending machine in the precinct, which garnered a laugh from Alexis. Then Kate started on the last incident from the store just now.

"You know, I originally thought it was fame, and the fact that your dad was higher up on the list this year, but now I'm not so sure," Kate told Alexis, grateful to have someone to discuss this with other than Castle, because he wasn't exactly entirely rational about the situation right now. "I mean, I get the whole fame and celebrity sighting thing, but hasn't been this bad the entire time he's been shadowing me. And your dad just isn't that level of famous where he has to deal with that type of thing, right? You know, to this extent anyway."

"Well, sometimes _he_ thinks he is, but no, I don't think he generally has hordes of random women swarming over him, not unless it's a book signing or a launch party or something."

"That's what I thought. So ..." Kate trailed off contemplatively.

"You think there's something else going on, other than that stupid Ledger list?" Alexis picked up on what she wasn't saying; Castle had always said the girl was smart.

"That's just it ... I don't know. But I heard a couple of the stalker types in the store just now, and they said some things that were ... strange." How did she explain her sixth-sense that she'd developed during her years as a detective? She just had a vague feeling that something wasn't quite right with the situation, but she had no proof at all; just her feeling.

"You _heard_ them?" Kate had given Alexis the condensed version of the story, and she'd glossed over how she'd gone into the store after Castle, so she briefly explained to Alexis how she'd gone into the store once she determined that Castle was MIA from his bread-buying mission. After she was done, Alexis asked, "What did they say?"

"One of them talked about seeing him for the second time today, so she'd 'get more' for that. There were a couple of comments like that. And a few of them were standing around talking about talking to him or getting him to kiss them—"

"Eww! Really? They were talking about him like he ... like you two weren't..."

Kate knew what she was talking about. "Well, yeah, but we're not public with ... us ... yet, so they wouldn't have known about that."

"But still! So what did you do?"

Kate smiled to herself. "Well, honestly, I had to stop myself from doing something painful to that redhead that wanted to kiss your dad." Kate heard a quick little chuckle from Alexis' side of the conversation. "But they were all talking, and I was still trying to figure out what the intense fascination was, and then your Dad called me to rescue him. So I grabbed the groceries that he'd tried to get, and I got out of there."

"Where's Dad now?"

"In the shower because he smelled like the garbage in the alley where he was hiding. I didn't want him to know I was calling you, or what I heard quite yet. He's already dramatic enough about all of this. Some of it justified, yeah, but I thought a shower would be better for him first."

There was a short pause in the conversation, and then Alexis summarized, "So there's all of these women, pretty much everywhere he goes, and they seem to be ... in competition for him or something?"

"That's just it ... I don't know. It seems like there's something going on, but I just can't—" Kate broke off as she felt her phone buzz in her hand. "Shoot, Alexis, the station is calling me. I have to take this."

"Okay. Thanks for letting me know though. If anything else strange happens, call me, okay?"

"Will do." Kate took the call, which only turned out to be from an overzealous lab tech who was calling to report some inconclusive matches on some of the preliminary evidence collected from their case that morning. It was news that could have waited until the morning, but she figured it was a slow night in the lab and maybe the lab tech was trying to seem important by calling her with the results.

But Castle was coming out of the bathroom then, shirtless, with his hair still wet. And momentarily, she forgot all about newspaper lists, or weird stalking women, or even dinner.

She got up off the couch and walked over to him, immediately slipping her arms around his bare sides. Burying her face in his neck, she gave his neck a little nibble before she told him, "Mmmm, you smell a lot better."

Finding her own neck with his lips, he murmured, "I like what happens when I smell better. I'll try to smell really good from now on."

She pulled back to look at him. In a sultry voice, she told him, "You make sure that you do that." And then she went for her lips with his, and dinner, for the moment, was forgotten.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Later, much later, they found some leftovers in the refrigerator, along with some cheese, and some apple pie. To go with the cheese, Rick said they needed some wine. So they opened a bottle of wine, and they had a picnic, of sorts, sitting on the floor in his living room, strange combinations of food on the coffee table, with him in his boxers and her shrugged into one of his dress shirts. Because only one button of that shirt was haphazardly holding the thing closed, it resulted in all sorts of teasing moments from Kate and subsequent leering looks from Castle. And they sat, alternately grinning at each other, engaging in highly suggestive innuendo, and generally trying to forget the strange events of the day while they enjoyed a little bit of their own little piece of privacy.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Later that evening, at almost midnight, the two of them were lounging in his bed, with the fact that Kate was sleeping over again just a foregone conclusion. And because it was relatively late, Castle was rather startled when his phone rang, jolting him out of that state of contented almost-sleep that he was in. But he was instantly on alert when he recognized his daughter's ringtone. "Alexis? Pumpkin, it's late! What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He couldn't stop his mind from jumping to conclusions, or stop his voice from uttering those conclusions out loud.

"No! I'm fine," she replied. "Hey, I'm in the living room. Can you come out? You and Kate? I know she's here. And with ... uh ... clothes on?"

"Alexis!" He'd been asleep, but now he was definitely embarrassed enough by what his daughter had said. "I ..."

"Oh, can it, Dad. I'm eighteen. She's here; it's not an off-the-wall thing to say. So just get out here, okay? I need to talk to you. Both."

Castle nudged Kate into wakefulness as he pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and then she grabbed his robe and put it on before they both ventured into the living room, where they saw the girl sitting in a chair, staring at her iPad.

"I thought you were staying at school tonight," Castle told his daughter. "It's really late, honey."

"Dad, I'm in college now. This is early. And I was going to stay at school, but then I found this, and I knew you had to see it. Now." She held out the iPad to them.

Castle was put on guard by something in her voice. "What is it, honey? Did you get a bad grade?"

Alexis rolled her eyes at him. "God, Dad ... no. I was talking with Kate earlier, and ... well, just read this."

Kate knew what they'd been talking about, so she asked the girl, "Alexis, what is it?"

Alexis took a breath. "I think I know why all of those women have been stalking Dad today, and why they're so creepy about everything."

* * *

_**Well, that's it for now.**_

_**Like it? Hate it? Found it really boring? Whatever it is, let me know. **_

_**And yeah, the 'Federation Starship' line was something that popped into my head after reading all of the spoilers and tweets for 5X07. And it seemed like something that geeky-Kate would say to geeky-Rick.**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**For this and all subsequent chapters, I will issue the disclaimer that I do not own the characters. However, I do reserve the right to claim my ideas that originate from this storyline. There are some ... interesting things that are going to start to happen in this chapter that are independent of the characters, and I do claim those as my own ideas, which may not be copied or used without my written permission.**_

* * *

_"I thought you were staying at school tonight," Castle told his daughter. "It's really late, honey."_

_"Dad, I'm in college now. This is early. And I was going to stay at school, but then I found this, and I knew you had to see it. Now." She held out the iPad to them._

_Castle was put on guard by something in her voice. "What is it, honey? Did you get a bad grade?"_

_Alexis rolled her eyes at him. "God, Dad ... no. I was talking with Kate earlier, and ... well, just read this."_

_Kate knew what they'd been talking about, so she asked the girl, "Alexis, what is it?"_

_Alexis took a breath. "I think I know why all of those women have been stalking Dad today, and why they're so creepy about everything."_

Chapter 7:

"Well, Dad, I don't know quite how to say this, but you're oozing."

Castle's face reflected a quick moment of morbid shock as if Alexis was seeing him naked, before he quickly looked down at himself to make sure that anything embarrassing was indeed covered. Whew. But he didn't know what ... he kept trying to look around on his body, trying to find what Alexis was taking about. "Uh ... from where? Do I need a towel?"

Alexis shook her head and looked at the ceiling. "Really, Dad. Gross. Not _that_ kind of oozing. Goo oozing," she clarified as if that cleared everything up.

But the two older adults, completely clueless as to whatever point she was trying to make, simply stared at the younger adult, waiting for the punchline. Or the explanation. Or something. And that younger adult stared at the older two, waiting for some show of recognition which just was not there.

Finally, because it was late and they weren't accomplishing anything by staring at each other, Kate asked her, "Alexis, what are you talking about?"

"Goo?" she said again in the form of a question, looking back and forth between Kate and her Dad. "Oozing? ? Come on, you guys!"

Castle's eyes got big once more, and then he quickly reached down and grabbed Alexis' arm, and began to haul her over to the other side of the room. After a few steps, she jerked her arm away as she admonished loudly, "Dad! What are you doing?"

Castle didn't say anything at first, but just leaned very close to her and peered into her eyes. "Alexis," he asked in a hushed voice, "Are you on drugs?"

Now it was Alexis' turn to have the shocked look on her face as she asked her father, "What? Dad ... no!" Seemingly ignoring her negative response, he reached forward and tried to pry her eyelids open with his fingers so he could look into them more closely, which only resulted in her swatting his hands away as she took a step backwards. "Dad! What are you doing?" Turning to Kate, who was also looking like she was surprised by the turn of events, Alexis asked Kate, "What is wrong with him?"

"I'm ... not sure. Castle!" she said, redirecting her attention to her suddenly very odd significant other. "Come here and sit down and let's talk about this rationally. I'm sure Alexis isn't on drugs."

"Thank you," Alexis said, voicing her gratitude toward Kate, while giving her father a strange look as she sat back down.

"She's not making any sense and that's one of the first signs that she could be on drugs! And she just started college, and you know how college is! All this talk about gooey things, and I still don't know what part of me is oozing—oh, my God! Are you having hallucinations too?" he asked with a stricken look on his face.

"Castle, shut up for a minute," Kate told him as Alexis put her head in her hands. "Give Alexis a chance to tell us what she's talking about, because Lord knows, I'm certainly wondering. And then I'm sure you'll find out she's not on drugs." She grabbed his arm and pulled him down side of her.

"Thank you," Alexis said again to Kate. Then after taking a deep breath, she asked, "Okay, so you guys have no idea what Goo is?"

Castle was apparently adhering to Kate's order to shut up, so she was the one who replied, "Sure, but I don't think you mean the same thing."

"It's supposed to be ... oh, I guess the random stuff that happens every day. You go out for coffee, you catch a cab ... whatever. Sometimes it's stuff that you might not normally even notice, like how many people are wearing black boots in a certain place. So there's this website, and they do a lot of this stuff. They post something, and then you have to find it. Finding it and posting about it is called 'oozing'. Goo oozes, you know?" She looked at Castle with that last comment, and he finally shrugged and nodded, because he couldn't argue that goo, did, well, ooze.

"So anyway, different things could be oozing at different times. And sometimes, the site will start an ooze about some goo, or they'll pick up on someone else's ooze, and they have prizes for whoever can keep the ooze going. You get points if you post some goo for the ooze. There are challenges. Some are little and easy, some are more difficult."

"Like a scavenger hunt?" Kate asked.

She thought about it. "Well, yeah, I guess, in a way. But a scavenger hunt is more with random things that don't go together, where all of the Goo oozing is centered around one particular Goostream ... uh, topic."

"Goostream?" interjected Castle. "Uh ... bad mental image there."

Alexis ignored her father's observation. "When Kate told me about the weird stalker women—"

Castle turned to Kate. "When did you tell her about the weird stalker women?"

Without missing a beat, she replied, "When you were showering off your alley-stink. Now let your daughter finish."

Alexis and Kate had reached a sort of friendly coexistence since Kate and her Dad had started dating. They weren't extremely close yet, but they were friendly. Since they'd gotten to know each other a little better, Alexis had been a little bit amazed at how well Kate was able to reign in her dad when he got fixated on something, like when she'd just ordered him to shut up after he got it in his head that she was on drugs. It was a little disconcerting at first, but eventually she realized that the detective kind of grounded her dad, and he did seem happy. So for now, that was good enough for her.

"So when Kate told me that she thought something was going on, more than just creepy fangirls—"

Castle turned to Kate again, obviously surprised. "You thought more was going on that just creepy fangirls and you didn't tell me?"

"Castle ..." she warned. "Will you let your kid talk now please? We can talk later." She pointedly turned away from him and silently signaled to Alexis to keep going.

"When Kate told me what some of the women were saying and doing, I had it in the back of my mind as I was studying, and then it just hit me. And I checked it out, and this was what I found." She proudly handed Kate the iPad and pointed to the screen. "Dad is oozing. See? This is from when he was in the store tonight."

Kate looked at the screen and read out loud, "_LB4 IS Larsen's Market, Grand St_." She looked up at Alexis. "That makes no sense."

"Yeah, it does, if you speak Goo. LB4 is Dad, at least right now. Ledger Bachelor number four ... LB4 ... get it? And the IS isn't the word 'is', but it stands for 'initial sighting'. So someone spotted Dad going into the store, created a piece of Goo and added to Dad's Ooze."

"Initial sighting? It makes me sound like I'm a UFO." Then he looked like he had a thought. "Wait a minute. So somebody saw me in the store, and then ... " Once again, he turned to Kate. "I _told_ you those women just came out of nowhere! So Scotty _didn't_ beam them down! They ..." he thought for a moment about how to say it, "... they floated in on the flow of oozing goo!" he finished proudly.

"Goostream," Alexis corrected as Kate rolled her eyes. "And Dad? With the Scotty reference, are you sure _you're_ not on drugs?"

"Be quiet, daughter. Hey, how far back do the tweets go?"

"Dad, this isn't Twitter. It's Goo. Goo is different."

"But it sounds like Twitter."

"Well, it's not," she admonished. "But you can search all the way back in your Ooze, or in the main Goostream, from the time everything was started."

"Good," Castle acknowledged. "But how can you even say Goostream with a straight face?"

Kate, who had the iPad and was scrolling through her boyfriend's ... Ooze, she guessed, was now was glancing back through entries from the day. She was amazed at all of the activity, just about him. She didn't understand a lot of it yet, but she was able to pick out the posts from when they were at the park when they'd found the victim. 'LB4 IS Central Park baseball diamond north', 'LB4 Q3a none' or ''LB4 picture,' followed by a link.' She didn't understand the middle one, but she could pretty much figure out the other two. There seemed to be quite a few ... what did Alexis call them? Oh, yeah ... pieces of Goo. About Castle.

And, like Alexis said, that would certainly explan the crazy fangirls. At least a little bit.

"What's this one?" Kate asked, pointing to the middle ... piece of Goo on the screen of the iPad.

Alexis looked at it and responded, "I'm not sure exactly, but it's a question. That's what the 'Q' means. The site has different challenges. This is probably one of them. If you try the challenge, you get points. If you successfully complete the challenge, you get more points.

"How do you know what the questions are?" Castle wanted to know.

"There's a list at the main page of the Goostream." She tapped a little bit on the iPad. "The app has shortcut buttons for the challenges and—"

Castle perked up at that. "There's an app for Goo?"

"Dad!" she admonished because he was interrupting her yet again. "Yes, there's an app for Goo. You can download it later. Now as I was saying, the app has buttons so you can post new Goo really quickly. If you want to win, sometimes it's a matter of seconds." She was tapping on the screen. "Yeah, here are the challenge questions. 'Get to know your Most Eligible Bachelors! Find out any of the following before noon and create Goo: What time was he born? Does he have a pet? What was his favorite food as a child? What was his first tea—"

Castle interrupted her reading by jumping up and gesticulating wildly, alternately pointing at the iPad and then at Kate. "That's it! That ... crazy mac and cheeeeese woman," he proclaimed, imitating the exaggerated vowel sound, "from the crime scene this morning. You heard her, Kate! She was trying to get the Goo on me!"

Alexis was a little taken aback by her father's outburst, and looked back and forth between her Dad and Kate a few times. Kate acknowledged him and put a hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down, while simultaneously trying to push him back onto the couch. When he wasn't quite as animated, Alexis asked Kate, "Were there a lot of people trying to talk to him, or ... do things, like get pictures or ... other stuff?" Alexis glanced down at the iPad a few random times as she was talking, and her voice held a bit of a worried edge to it.

"Uh...yeah. One girl slipped your dad her phone number, and some other woman leaned over and hugged him and snapped a picture."

"Was this her?" Alexis asked, showing them the iPad, where they saw a picture of the grinning woman at the crime scene with her arm around a somewhat stunned looking Castle.

"Hey, that's a horrible picture of me!"

Kate ignored Castle's vanity statement and confirmed, "Yes, that's the woman from the park this morning. Of course, Alexis, other women were getting pictures too, after your father decided to act like he was holding a press conference at the crime scene." She rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I did not! I was just ... uh ... trying to be friendly," Castle stammered, trying to defend himself over what he realized too late was a major gaffe on his part. If he only knew that what he knew now ...

"Well, did they return enough of your 'friendliness' to you, Castle?" Beckett asked him with a smirk, knowing that he regretted it now. He _really_ regretted it now.

Before he could answer, Alexis, who was looking down at more of her father's Ooze on the iPad, exclaimed, "Oh, my God! Dad! In _public_? Tell me you didn't."

"Didn't what?" The older adults asked in unison.

"One of the challenges ... it was for getting a piece of his clothing. And some woman said she did!" The girl had a worried look of disgust on her face. "God, Dad, tell me you didn't ... try ... something naked somewhere? Please? Because I'm thinking if some woman got your clothing and it's not Kate ... that's just bad." Then she shot an apologetic look to the detective. "Uh ... sorry, Kate, but it says—"

They both looked perplexed for a moment, but then Kate started laughing. "_That's_ why she did it!" She looked at Castle. "Your pocket thing, Castle. That woman who ran away with your pocket thing? Didn't she yell something about your clothing right before she ran away like a lunatic?"

Alexis visibly relaxed as the detective laughed, but she still looked puzzled as Castle said, "Yeah! She was right before mac and cheeeeeese lady, wasn't she?" And then he clarified, "Alexis, I was not naked in public today. The woman was probably desperate and she saw the little decorative thing in my jacket pocket, so she grabbed it and ran away. And then it sounds like she Oozed about it."

"Posted some Goo," Alexis corrected.

"Whatever," he said. Then he looked at his watch and was amazed at how long Alexis had been educating them in the world of Goo and Oozes. "Alexis, honey, don't you have an early class tomorrow?"

"It's at ten, so I'm good." She looked between the two adults. "So ... what are you guys going to do now? I mean, now that you know more about why the crazy stalker women are doing the crazy stalking?"

Castle and Beckett looked at each other. "Uh," Kate started, "I guess the first thing we should do is get that app on our phones. Then can we ... follow the ... Ooze or something?" The terminology still sounded strange to her.

Alexis shrugged. "You can float the Ooze or just ride the Ooze. 'Following' is more of a twitter term so Goobers don't really use it."

"Goobers?" Kate asked.

"Goobers are just people who post Goo."

"So," Castle asked, "If we start using Goo, then we'll be Goobers too?"

Alexis nodded. "Oh, wonderful," Kate replied, rolling her eyes but still smiling. "Yet another horizon that you've broadened for me, Castle. I've always aspired to be a Goober," she told him sarcastically.

"Hey, it always helps to be in tune with pop culture," he reminded her. Turning to Alexis, he asked curiously, "How did you learn about all of this, anyway? And how in the world did _I_ not know about it?" Castle wanted to know. "I always know about things like this. I pride myself in having my finger on the pulse of pop culture." He sounded a little put out that his daughter had had to give him a tutorial for the latest 'thing'. And the fact that there was an app for it and he still hadn't known about it? Double-whammy.

"For me, just from using it a few times and hearing other people talk about it. And there were some freshmen Oozes at school, to try to get to know the campus or get to know other people. But for you? If I had to guess, I'd have to say that you've been a bit ... out of touch lately." She smiled knowingly. "Maybe you've had other ... interests that have been occupying your free time," she suggested, stealing a very quick but pointed look at Kate. But then she adopted an innocent expression as she suggested, "I'm sure you've been doing a lot of reading, right? Trying to catch up on Patterson's and Connelly's latest books? Or ... Dad! Have you taken up knitting? I know you've always wanted to learn. And since you didn't even know about the hottest thi—"

"Point taken, daughter." He shot a look at Kate to see how she was taking Alexis' obvious insinuations, but she had a slight grin on her face at the way Alexis was ribbing him. "And yes, I haven't been ... out in the world too much lately; I fully admit it. You know we're still trying to keep this under wraps from everyone, and—"

"I get it, Dad. Don't worry. I just couldn't resist. Patterson? Knitting? As if," she laughed. "Now, I do think I'll go up to bed if you think you're okay with everything. Can you handle getting the app?"

Castle gave her a pithy look. "I may not have known what this type of Goo was until tonight, but I think I can still handle downloading an app all by myself. I'm not _that_ out of touch."

They exchanged their goodnights and Alexis retired to her room upstairs. Castle and Beckett leaned back onto the couch, just thinking about the whole situation. Then, almost simultaneously, they both reached for their phones. "We have to get that app," she proclaimed.

"Yeah, but let's wait until the morning. I'm tired." He said the words tiredly, but he leaned over and nuzzled her neck with a kiss right afterward, letting her knew that he wasn't _that_ tired.

She swatted him away gently as she searched for the app. "Castle, you heard Alexis. There's basically a contest where you're the prize. Or actually, you're the means to an end for someone to get some _really_ good prizes. There's some nice stuff ... I saw some of them when I was looking on Alexis' iPad."

"Are you saying I'm _not_ a good prize?" he asked as he raised one eyebrow at her.

"Are you saying that you _want_ to be the prize for some little fangirl?" She raised an eyebrow at him, and the smirk dropped off his face at her implication.

"No, no. I'll just be _your_ prize." He punctuated his statement with a quick kiss on her lips.

"Fine, but no more hiding in alleys, okay? You really did stink before."

"Got it."

"But anyway, do you realize that there could be new challenges about you? How do you know that one of them isn't to play ding dong ditch or something like that?"

"The doormen would never let random fangirls up here in the middle of the night," he reasoned.

"Castle ... okay, maybe not that exact thing, but my point is that we have to know what to expect. What about when you tried to get coffee this morning? If you'd had the app then, or had even known about Goo then, you might have had more of a warning."

She did have a point about that. "Okay, fine." He grabbed his phone, and they both were silent for a few minutes as they found the app and started the downloads.

"So what about tomorrow?" Beckett finally asked.

"Well, like you said, forewarned is forearmed. I'm sure it'll be fine, now that we know what's going on."

She looked skeptical. "You really think that?"

"Sure. We've been surprised by crazy fangirls, but now that we know where they'll be, we'll just avoid them. Easy." He shrugged and stood up from the couch, pulling her with him. "Let's go to bed. It's late, and we have a case to solve tomorrow, right?"

"Right, she said as she followed him back to his bedroom. But even though he sounded confident, there was still a funny feeling of foreboding in her gut, like, once again, they might be in for some surprises.

* * *

_**There it is! I hope you all enjoyed it, along with the explanation of the Goo and the Ooze. If you see any typos, please let me know. My keyboard is still acting funny.**_

_**I got such an amazing response and such wonderful feedback for the last chapter, so THANK YOU! To all of those who so consistently read and review, I thank you from the bottom of my heart (or the tips of my typing fingers). The curse of the weekend is hereby lifted, at least for now. I contacted a number of you, but if I didn't contact you, please know that I still did appreciate your feedback and I'll try to get to you next time. I am really enjoying writing this story and having this little plot unfold, and I love it that so many of you are intrigued with it too. And several of you did guess the scavenger hunt angle, so even if you were one of those people, I still hope you were somewhat surprised by the whole Goo thing.**_

_**Several of you have said that this would make a good episode. I definitely agree, and I wish the show would revisit this sometime. As I'm writing this, I can 'see' the actors playing these scenes. I would love to see this played out on screen, because I think with their facial expressions and comic abilities, this could be hilarious.**_

_**If you are just now finding this story and want to receive alerts for new chapters, I ask again that you leave me some feedback, good OR bad. After 7 chapters, you must have formed some kind of opinion about the story. **__**This is an amateur writing site...that's the whole purpose of the site: if a story shows promise, provide some feedback and motivation, and that author will in turn provide more and better things for you to read. Win-win, right?**_

_**(As I stated previously, the whole 'Goo' concept as outlined here is strictly a product of my imagination and is not meant to mimic anything that is currently in existence (if it turns out that I'm like Castle and don't know what's going on with pop culture). That said, if there is currently no medium like this already in existence as I publish this chapter on the afternoon of 10/4/2012, I claim these ideas as my own and they may not be used without my permission. The characters, of course, still do not belong to me.)**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Thanks so much for the wonderful response from the last chapter! I agree with several of you who said that having a real version of Goo would be fun. **_

_**Sorry for the delay; I published a chapter of another of my stories since the last chapter of this one, so that's partly to blame. **_

_**Now, before and as you read this chapter, try to get a mental image of the actors and their facial expressions, mannerisms, etc. If you can imagine those things when you read this, I think you'll enjoy the chapter more. I wrote this around the time that the promos and sneak peeks were released for 5X04, so I was envisioning that sort of vibe from R&E when I wrote this.**_

_**Disclaimer: I have no rights to the characters, only to the concept of Goo, which I've explained in previous chapters.**_

* * *

"So tell us again why we're in here again?" Esposito asked softly as he entered the conference room behind Castle and Beckett.

"Because Castle apparently found out why he's being stalked by crazy fangirls." Beckett rolled her eyes a little bit, just for effect in front of the boys. Before coming in this morning, they'd concocted a hopefully plausible story that allowed her to know about Goo and have the app on her phone, but leave out that fact that she was at Castle's late the previous night—in Castle's robe, no less—when Alexis had enlightened them to the wonders of virtually Oozing Goo.

"Isn't it just because he's rich and ruggedly handsome?" Ryan asked with a smirk. "And, oh yeah, because he made the front page of the Ledger yesterday as being ..." he clarified, lifting his fingers to make air quotes, "... 'eligible'?"

"Well, yes," Castle said proudly, the vain part of him not wanting to deny the 'rich' and 'ruggedly handsome' descriptors, "that may be true, but that's not the cause of all of the coffee-stealing, cheek-kissing, clothes-stealing madness. It seems—"

"Some chica stole your clothes? When?" Esposito wanted to know. He didn't remember anything like that from yesterday.

"Yesterday, in the park," Castle answered. "So anyway—"

"I don't remember that. Ryan, you remember someone stealing Castle's clothes?" Esposito asked him.

This time, Beckett interrupted him before Ryan could answer. "It was that little thing in his pocket, Esposito. That one woman grabbed it and ran off with it? Remember?"

"That's not clothes though. That's ... well, I don't know what it is, but it's not clothes." He sounded strangely disappointed.

"It was good enough for her. Now will you guys shut up and listen to Castle before Gates finds us in here?" Beckett asked in a hushed voice, reminding them of how Gates was even less of a fan of Castle after the phone call incident from the day before.

"Fine," Ryan agreed.

"Okay," Castle continued, "as I was saying, it seems that I've become quite the phenomenon since yesterday morning."

"You and all of the other Most Eligible Bachelors," Beckett clarified. She had checked and it was true that all of the men in the Ledger list were getting ... gooey, or were Oozing, or whatever you called it. But of course, as luck would have it, Castle seemed to have a bigger Ooze than anyone else, mostly, she surmised, due to his greater accessibility and the fact that his connecton to the 12th was mentioned in the article, thereby giving people a hint where to find him that the other bachelors didn't have.

"Yes, all of us," he acknowledged to her, somewhat reluctantly. Turning back to the boys, he explained, "There's this thing, almost like a contest, and if someone sees me, for example, the person can get points for it."

"A contest?" Esposito asked.

"Kind of," Beckett interjected. "To hear Castle explain it," she continued, trying to keep up the ruse that she didn't get the information at the same time that Castle did, "it's kind of a cross between a contest and some sort of social networking."

"Yeah, those women yesterday were networking your social side pretty well, Castle," Ryan observed, trying to stifle a grin.

"So anyway," Castle interrupted again after pointedly looking at Ryan. He took a breath and tried to formulate what he wanted to say using the new Goo terminology that he'd just learned. "I'm Oozing. I'm really Oozing a lot, and there's just a lot of Goo. Which means that—"

Esposito, who was the closest to Castle, made a point of taking a few steps away from him quite quickly and held up a hand before Castle could say anymore. "Whoa! Man, I _really_ don't want to know any more."

"No!" Castle said quickly, seeing that Esposito was misunderstanding. He tried to explain. "My Goo is really—"

"Dude! Just stop! There are just some things that shouldn't be shared, even with friends. And that's one of 'em."

But Ryan perked up, saying, "Really? You're Oozing? Goo? _That's_ what this is about? Pretty impressive, Castle! So how much Goo do you have? Beckett, did you see his Goo?"

Kate watched the look on Esposito's face get more shocked as he listened to Ryan's words. He started shaking his head from side to side. Before Castle could answer Ryan's first question, Esposito pointed at both of them. "No. Just no. Not another word. That's sick."

"Esposito—" Beckett tried, surprised by his reaction because although she'd gotten used to the terminology since last night and Ryan also apparently knew about Goo, Esposito was obviously still in the dark and was getting a little creeped out by what he thought Castle was implying.

His eyes flitted over to Beckett. "Don't tell me you want to hear about Castle's personal problems with ... " He leaned closer to Beckett and lowered his voice. "Man, just make him go to a doctor or something, okay?"

"No, it's not that ... Look, Esposito, Goo is the social networking thing that Castle was talking about. That's what it's called. Castle has a category or something by virtue of being the number four most eligible bachelor."

Esposito didn't say anything, but he looked over at Ryan, who confirmed what she was saying. "Yeah. Jenny's done a couple of the Oozes. What is it ... floating on the Ooze or something?" He looked at Beckett, who just shrugged. "The Ooze is the topic or the thing that you're looking for. So Castle is the topic. He's Oozing. For one of the Oozes that Jenny did about a month ago, she even won a pretty nice gift card for a new coffee place."

Esposito reiterated, "So there's a contest for people who ... what? See Castle and rip off parts of his clothes? There are prizes and stuff? And he's not ... really ... oozing ... something?" His tone was still wary and somewhat disbelieving.

"Yes, it's a contest of sorts, somewhat like a scavenger hunt," Beckett confirmed. "At least his Goostream is. From what I've seen, not all of the Oozes have prizes. And don't worry, Esposito," she added wth a smirk, "he's not really oozing anything real. At least I don't think he is."

"Hey Beckett," Ryan said thoughtfully, "You know a lot about Goo and Goostreams, especially since you just found out about this whole thing this morning. What's up with that?"

She gave Ryan a pithy look. "I read fast, Ryan. Okay? It's not like I'm some closet Goober." As soon as she said it, she thought, 'oh, crap.' She hoped Ryan might not catch it, but then she took a look at his face.

"_Goober? _Beckett!" Ryan exclaimed in surprise. Esposito, still very new to this whole thing, just looked at them quizzically. "You—"

"Shut up, Ryan," she said, giving him a menacing look, "Or I may have to shoot you." Then she happened to look back at Castle, who had a look on his face that was somewhere between shocked and pouty. "What's wrong, Castle?"

He cocked his head toward Ryan. "How has _he_ known about Goo for a month and I _just_ found out about it?"

Ryan shrugged, but then smirkily smiled. "Not sure, Castle. And I've actually known about it since ... oh, I don't know, but it's been at least a couple of months. Seems like this is right up your alley though. Your book is done ... so what've you been doing that's been so important you_ totally _missed this?"

All eyes were on Castle now, who looked between the three faces staring at him. "I ... uh ... was catching up on some sleep, and there are meetings ..." he stammered before taking a breath and snapping himself out of the denial mode he was in. "Who cares what I've been doing? The point is that Esposito now knows that I don't have a disgusting personal problem and we now know these women are on the hunt for me."

"Yeah, too bad they don't really want you. They just want to use you to win the stuff. Hey, did you see what they can win?"

Castle puffed up. "Yeah. Some good stuff. Yesterday they had a couple of Broadway tickets they gave away. They had an iPad too, but after I ditched them in the alley ..." Castle started rambling, not really realizing that he was giving way more information about his evening than he needed to.

"You had to ditch some women?"

"Uh, yeah ... but another time, okay? We need to talk about this whole Oozing thing."

"Why? You need help avoiding them? I'd offer to take some of them off your hands, Castle," Esposito told him, "but deranged stalker chicas really aren't my type."

"Well, yeah, not mine either. But if you can help ... sure. Beckett and I downloaded the app ... uh, I mean I did when Alexis told me about it and Beckett said she was going to after I, uh, talked to her this morning. So we could ... see what was Oozing about me." He was stammering as he was trying to remember to refer to it like they hadn't found out about Goo together the night before. He wasn't used to measuring his words quite this much before he spoke, and darn, it wasn't easy!

"So anyway," Beckett took over, giving Castle a censuring look, "after he told me about it, I thought maybe you guys should download the app too. Then we can all have a heads-up if they're going to start stalking Castle for some Goo. Or the Ooze."

"Hey!" Ryan said brightly. "We could stalk Castle!"

"Excuse me?" Castle said.

"We could stalk Castle and get some of the prizes! And if we get the prizes, then the crazy stalkers will leave him alone. Hey," he shrugged, "I could use some Broadway tickets."

"Dude," Esposito told him, "this is a 'most eligible bachelor' thing. You gonna go out in public and try to kiss Castle or steal his clothes?"

The smile dropped off Ryan's face. "Yeah, you have a point there. Damn. Guess the contest only works for women."

And then Beckett and Castle watched as the other two detectives looked at each other for a few seconds before smug smiles appeared on their faces. They slowly turned to look at Beckett.

"What?" she said, getting a little weirded out by the smiles that were directed at her.

"You're a woman," Esposito observed.

"Well, thanks for noticing, Esposito. You're really quick this morning," she told him sarcastically. "But what ... oh, wait a minute. No way," she said forcefully as she shook her head.

"Come on, Beckett. It's perfect."

"What's perfect?" Castle asked, obviously not following their train of thought like Beckett was.

"Beckett can be your stalker!"

"My stalker?" Castle was starting to get a deer-in-the-headlights look.

"Yeah! She can float on your Ooze and do the challenges! She could totally nab the prizes," Ryan explained.

Beckett grimaced at how 'float on your Ooze' sounded when spoken aloud, especially when referring to her and Castle, and she hoped he wasn't going to make some comment about it. But she quickly ignored that in favor of addressing the main issue. "No way, Ryan. I am _not_ going to stalk Castle for prizes!" she interjected.

"Come on, Beckett! You don't have to keep the stuff. We'll be happy to take it all of your hands," he offered, trying to sound generous.

She only responded by glaring at the other two detectives.

Esposito tried again. "Hey, it's not like you and Castle are involved or anything, so what's the harm? You're just as ... well, eligible for the Ooze as anyone else is. No conflict of interest. Totally fair. Right?"

Right? _Right? _ No! She was _not_ going to act like a fangirl and do any of those challenges! "Esposito! Just ... no!"

"Think about it, Beckett," Ryan reasoned. "The Ooze is out there. You might as well float on it. And you know if you don't, then some other other crazy women probably will. And then we'll have to worry about crowd control at the crime scenes, and phone calls or people coming to see him here, and you know how Gates feels already ..." he trailed off, raising an eyebrow at what he was implying. The more Ryan thought about it, it really was a perfect scenario to curb Castle's sudden popularity, not to mention annoying Beckett at the same time. Then, not above trying a little bit of guilt, he delivered his closing shot. "And you know, Gates is already pretty mad about the whole phone call thing from yesterday. If this all continues and you don't do your part—you know, take the heat off of Castle—well, Gates just might decide he's really too much trouble and kick him out for good."

Beckett looked at both of them and then rolled her eyes. "Guys—"

"Take one for the team, Beckett," Esposito urged in a calm, smooth voice. "Make like you're hot for Castle. Get some Ooze on him."

"Goo," the other three of them corrected simultaneously.

Hot for Castle. The guys wanted her to act like she was hot for Castle. Little did they know that she was _already_ hot for Castle. And they heated things up reasonably often.

But they didn't know that, and she wanted to keep it that way for now. She stared at them, her lips pursed, not saying anything. Castle almost looked like he was holding his breath waiting to see what she would say.

"Look, guys," she reasoned, trying for the softer approach. "I cannot act like one of those strange women. That's just not me. You know that."

"But it doesn't have to _be_ you. You just have to do enough to win the chal—uh, get the women away from Castle." Ryan changed his mind mid sentence, cognizant of the fact that helping Castle would outweigh the need for her to help them win prizes. "Although I'm sure that Castle wouldn't mind if you ripped some of his clothes off in public."

She was getting frustrated, and she wanted out of this conversation. And when she sneaked a look at Castle, his expression was some sort of a strange cross between wary and smug, with a little bit of 'fantasizing about Beckett fangirling me in public' thrown in there somewhere, if the blank look and the little smile were a good indication. She knew him well enough now to know when his brain was taking a detour like that, and right now, she could see he was obediently following the detour signs that Ryan and Esposito had put up.

"Castle!" she said tersely. His eyes snapped back to her, totally focused now. "Stop thinking that right now!" She didn't even bother to say what 'that' was.

"I wasn't ..." he weakly protested, but it was _so_ obvious that he was.

"Freaky ..." Ryan observed softly as he watched her read him so accurately.

"Creepy is more like it. She could totally win stuff," Esposito whispered to him.

Beckett heard the murmurs and gave her attention back to the guys. Taking a deep breath, she told them resolutely, "Guys, it's a new day. All of that stuff is probably dead and buried and they've moved onto today's Goo. We should watch the Goo app just in case, but I'm sure it won't be as much of a problem today." She shrugged. "No big deal."

As she said the words, she had a strange feeling. And then it hit her that what she'd just said was the exact same thing that Castle had said the day before. Several times. But he'd been wrong; it _had_ proven to be a big deal.

But they didn't know then why it was happening. Now they did, she rationalized to herself. So they were still better off today than they were yesterday. Right.

She chewed her lip and tried to think positively. No big deal. She just hoped she was a lot better at these types of predictions than Castle was.

* * *

_**I thought it would be best to end it there, for now. I thought I'd go a bit farther with this chapter, but it didn't work out that way. Add Ryan and Esposito to the mix, and things just take a little longer. (And of the two, of course Ryan would be the one to already know about Goo.) But although we're not done by any means, I'm envisioning that I'll have this wrapped up in about another three or maybe four chapters. **_

_**Thank you to all who reviewed or sent me a note on the last chapter! Some of you had some interesting insights on Goo. I'm still really surprised to be getting new readers! Welcome! Don't forget to say Hi, and please give me your constructive criticism.**_

**_Reviews/comments are always appreciated. You know ... what works, what doesn't work. What you thought was funny ... what fell flat. Feedback helps._**


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